We extend agency theory to propose that structural reform positively impacts firm profitability in developing countries because the improvements in external monitoring that accompany structural reform decrease the agency costs faced by firms. However, we also argue that not all firms benefit...

Business corporations seek profit. That is, after subtracting cost, they maximize net revenue. Spillovers (both costs and benefits) involve trade-offs governing boards should make. Spillovers, especially when coupled with clumsy applications of discounted present value, distort a business'...

Transition has entailed the introduction of policies to stimulate product market competition, to establish effective corporate governance and to harden enterprise budget constraints. How do these policies interact? Are they substitute policy instruments or does one policy reinforce the effect of...

Countries appear to differ considerably in the basic orientations of their corporate governance structures. We postulate the trade-off between objectivity and proximity as fundamental to the corporate governance debate. We stress the value of objectivity that comes with distance (e.g. the market...

In previous work, we argued that there is a link between corporate governance and the reduction of violence. In this manuscript, we further explore that link with a focus on how corporations can work toward the goal of reduction of violence in the societies in which they operate. Here, we pose...

Post-privatization restructuring of former state-owned enterprises (FSOEs) encompasses both shorter-run "defensive" actions and longer-run "strategic" measures. Restructuring involves changes in corporate governance, organizational structure, management, labor, capital, technology, output, and...

Research reported by Thomas Homer-Dixon characterizes five social effects that can significantly increase the likelihood of violence in the emerging world, effects that are far deeper than can be controlled by security forces: (1) constrained agricultural production, often in ecologically...

We compare the change in ownership concentration in firms privatized through two different programs of mass privatization: the Czech voucher scheme and the Polish program of National Investment Funds. Despite important differences in ownership structure at the start of the process and in the...

We study the influence of bank insolvency on corporate restructuring in a dynamic model of bank relationship. Using a poorly developed banking technology our model shows that bank insolvency can have a positive effect on firms' incentives to restructure. Due to the technology each firm faces...

We study whether Russian Financial-Industrial Groups facilitate access by Russian firms to investment finance. We compare firms which are members of official Financial Industrial Groups and/or are owned by a large Russian bank with a control set of large firms categorized by dispersed ownership...